Deployed Troops Give To Obama 6 to 1

Honestly, I find this to be a bit of a surprise. I think we’ve always been led to believe that people in the military will overwhelmingly support the Republican candidate, but that doesn’t seem to be the case this year.

Also, Obama leads McCain in donations from “All Military Personnel” as well. 859 donors have given the Illinois senator $335,536, while 558 have contributed $280,513 to McCain’s coffers. In fact, the only place where McCain leads is in the average donation amount. His is $502.71, while Obama’s is $390.61.

And to contrast that with past years…

In 2000, Republican George W. Bush outraised Democrat Al Gore among military personnel almost 2 to 1. In 2004, with the Iraq war underway, John Kerry closed the gap with President Bush, but Bush still raised $1.50 from the military for every $1 his Democratic opponent collected.

One last interesting sidenote, as noted above, Ron Paul leads McCain 4 to 1 in donations from troops deployed overseas, although it’s likely that many of these contributions found their way to the Congressman before McCain won the nomination.

Still, that represents a 10 to 1 “vote” from military personnel deployed overseas who donated to an anti-war candidate. Telling, no?

Beyond that, the would-be McCain soldier-donor has a hurdle to clear on his way to his checkbook that the Paul and Obama donor doesnâ€™t. By kicking in to Maverick, heâ€™s making it marginally more likely that heâ€™ll continue to be deployed in the field and away from his family in the future. Even if he agrees with McCainâ€™s foreign policy, thinks we ought to finish the job in Iraq, and is willing to continue serving bravely and well to that end, itâ€™s asking a lot to ask him to pay for the privilege.

I could buy that if Obama was outraising McCain by a small margin, but 6 to 1 is no small margin. And, as mentioned above, when Paul is factored in, it’s 10 to 1.